Here are a few impressions from our conference.
Conference of the Project “The post-Holocaust Development of Legal
Remedies as a Learning Process (Post-Holocaust Remedies) on:
Intellectual Property Rights Related to Works
Authored in Ghettos and Concentration Camps
Giessen. As part of the project funded by the Foundation Remembrance, Responsibility and Future (EVZ) and the Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF) on “The post-Holocaust Development of Legal Remedies as a Learning Process” (“Post-Holocaust Remedies” project), the Chair of Public Law and International Law (Prof. Dr. Thilo Marauhn) held a conference on “Intellectual Property Rights Related to Works Authored in Ghettos and Concentration Camps” at the Justus Liebig University in Giessen on June 14, 2024.
Art can be an emotional escape. The permanent exhibition “Trace of Life” in Block 27 of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum demonstrates this power by presenting the works of some of the 1.5 million children murdered in the Holocaust. This exhibition also tells a story of copyright law, which is part of the legal research of Prof. Lior Zemer (Dean of the Harry Radzyner Law School, Reichman University, Herzliya, Israel). Prof. Zemer already presented his research on this topic as a partner of the “post-Holocaust Remedies” project at the project's international Summer School 2023. The copyright of works of art, drama, music and literature created by Jewish prisoners in the Nazi concentration camps is a topic that has so far been underrepresented in legal research. This gave the Chair's project team, led by Prof. Dr. Thilo Marauhn and Dr. Ayse-Martina Böhringer, and including Hanin Hagjija-Alaoui Soulimani, Marzena Eva Duszynski, Lina Kost, Sabrina Ohm, Finn Luis Reis and Julia Rosenfeld, two reasons to break new ground in this area by inviting various experts from all over the world to the conference to deepen the research in an interdisciplinary framework.
Prof. Dr. Marauhn opened the conference by emphasizing that legal analysis reaches its limits with this topic, as it also includes an emotional component. This is particularly evident in the strong emotional expression in art. All the guests confirmed this view and many experts addressed the emotional significance in their presentations. Prof. Zemer belongs to the third generation of Holocaust survivors and gave personal insights in his presentation into how the art of the prisoners still accompanies him today, including through his son, who today plays pieces by the Jewish Czech composer Pavel Haas on his oboe, which Haas wrote in the concentration camp before he was murdered in Auschwitz in 1944.
Prof. Zemer used his own example to illustrate that the creative personalities live on in these works and that history thus remains a living reality. Eliad Moreh-Rosenberg – Chief Art Curator in the Museums Division of Yad Vashem – also provided deep insights into art, showing a wide variety of works by artists, all of which were created during imprisonment in concentration camps. Among others, she analyzed the works of Felix Nussbaum (a German-Jewish surrealist). His works, such as Self-Portrait with Jewish Identity Card and Triumph of Death, address his experiences as a Jew during the Holocaust. The insights into the work of an art curator were new for many of those present and emphasized the particular interdisciplinary framework of the conference. This framework was also underscored by Prof. Dr. Stefan Peters (Justus Liebig University Giessen, CAPAZ) with his research on dealing with the past in the Colombian peace process. Although a lecture on the Colombian peace process at a conference dealing with the copyright problems of works created during the Holocaust may seem somewhat strange at first glance, the lecture nevertheless allowed for impressive comparisons that stimulated discourse on alternative regulations.
But there was no shortage of legal lectures either. Prof. Dr. Matthias Weller (Institute for German and International Civil Procedure Law, University of Bonn) gave a lecture on the turning point in the restitution of Nazi-looted art and the associated reform of the German Advisory Commission and Dr. Avraham Weber (Associate Assistant Professor, CUNY, Brooklyn College, NY) gave a lecture on the Washington Principles on Nazi Confiscated Art. He also addressed the introduction of soft law as a means of achieving justice. Further lecturers were: Prof. Awi Blumenfeld (Director of Shoah Awareness, Historian, Claims Conference), who gave an exciting lecture on the challenges for the restitution of art in the 21st century 80 years after the Shoah, Niv Goldberg (lawyer) enriched the conference with his remarks on the Bruno Schulz case and Prof. Dr. Yoram Shachar (former Dean of the Harry Radzyner Law School, Reichman University) provided the participants with an interesting insight into the topic by focusing on fundamental questions of cultural rights and equitable mutuality.
Last but not least, it marked the culmination of the post-Holocaust Remedies project, which came to a fruitful and successful conclusion after 23 months.